Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-01-14
A Rnnawav passenrer Train.

As Shenandoah Valley train No. , leay-
ing Roanoke Wednesday, 5ih inst, was
on its north bound trip, and all the pas
songers were sleeping or doing as COM
Portable as is possible on a train. there was
/ 2 sudden shock which caused all ON board
to pick themselves mp from the various i0-
voluntary positions the ilr had caused
| them TO assume.
got ont from between the seats where
/ ! had been thrown in time 10 ,cc all the
others doing likewise. and TO hear Tine
"news butcher" swear be- was going 10 re-
port that engine man for Coming back
50 darned hard. as his stock IN trade wa,
scattered an over The car and badly dam
aged Everybody wanted to know what
the matter was. ] asked everybody, and
everybody asked me- conld not tell
and ;he most intelligent answer received
was from a lady who said,. Something
awful had happened"
A search over the train disclosed the
fact that not one of the trains crew We're
aboard, and that the sleeping cars were
detached and the train was moving off
very fast.
The people wcra now excited 70 the
highest pitch and in an instant the hell
cord rcsembled a clothes line with weeks
washing upon it-all on board wanted 10
pull the bell That bell was well pulled.
but il did no good. We were now making
the fastest time on record. Having Int
tie experience railroading, tried to ex-
plain to the excited passengers that the
engineer was running to keep out Of the
way of the detached sleeping car: that
pulling the bell would do no good and
that everything was all night. This check
ed the excitement little, but not the
speed of the train. We were now dashing
along al a fearful rate around curves and
bluffs along the James River looked
ahead, and 10 my horror, we were running
in utter darkncss-nOt a glimmer Of light
in front of the engine, the headlight nav
ing gone out. knew that something was
surely wrong, and that something must
be done. The passengers were becoming
more and more excited. Ididn'tfeel hap
py myself knew we had gone further
than is usual when running away from q
detached car. 50 we fell 10 work at the
brakes and soon the train began TO slow
mp and finally stopped after running about
nine miles We made our way to the en-
CINE as quickly as possible, and TO our as
constituent, neither cngineman nor fire
man could be found. q will state here
that though efforts were made TO roach
the engine while the train was in motion.
8 it was impossible to accomplish it As two
cars. the mail and express cars, could not
be passed over without certain death 10
the one attempting it, / seized Ian
tern and struck ont for the nearest tele-
graph Office which was about A miles
ahead. When reached the Office found
that some one had gone back from where
the shock occurred to Buchanan and was
sending a message which explained the
mystery.
H. seems that something was wrong
with the air brakes on our engine and the
train was stopped to fix it when freight
train, that was following. came around a
curve and ran into u.s. The shock caused
B the throttle TO open when our engine and
what cars were able to travel dashed of
{ down the track, leaving the train men
standing with the wrecked sleepers. This
, accounts for our lightning ride Of nin'
Y miles behind a runaway engine.
= can safely assert that no one enjoyed
f the ride or will ever want to experience II
$ again. Fortunately, no one was hurt save
o a few slight bruises.
a cannot say who is to blame for th'
e accident